Comparative study on the performance of planar and cellular reinforcements for sandy soil

Abstract

Although planar and cellular reinforced soil is widely used for reinforcement in geotechnical applications, limited field and large-scale studies exist which can provide more reliable data. This study presented comprehensive data from large-scale model tests on square footing supported on planar, cellular, and hybrid reinforced sand. Moreover, fieldwork was carried out to study the rutting properties of sand with and without such reinforcements. Results revealed that the bearing capacity ratio BCR increased to about 1.5, 2.05, and 2.9 for soil reinforced with four layers of geogrid, single geocell, and double geocell, respectively. Fieldwork showed that rutting decreased significantly to 3.5-8.5 (after 900 load passes) than 22.5 cm for unreinforced soil. This improvement is related to the observed reduction in the stress (50.7-60.4%) induced at a depth of 1.5 times breadth, which was recorded when the soil was reinforced. Moreover, hybrid reinforcements exhibited better performance in terms of increasing bearing pressure and eliminating deformation due to the combination of the top features of both planar and cellular reinforcements.